Saturday, 1 December 2012

#11: Talisman Of Death

TALISMAN OF DEATH

Mark Smith & Jamie Thomson

Reviewed by Mark Lain

When I first
read this book as a child in the early 80s it seemed at odds with previous FFs,
plus its tone felt more adult. With hindsight (and far more knowledge of
gamebooks in general) the difference between TOD and other FFs is fairly explicit – other FF books ARE FF, TOD is not. It was written by the
writers of the Way of the Tiger
series of gamebooks, was illustrated by Bob Harvey who also illustrated Way of the Tiger, and is even set on
Orb, the setting of Way of the Tiger.
No matter how you look at it, TOD is
fundamentally Way of the Tiger with
FF rules. The fact that Way of the
Tiger (and also Joe Dever's Lone Wolf, but that is just an aside in the name of factual accuracy) were the only other gamebook series that came anywhere near
giving FF something to feel threatened by suggests that this book was basically
a peace-gesture between the two series. To make it seem slightly less blatant
you start as a human on Earth who is chosen by some Gods to go to Orb on an
errand, but the fact remains that this book could just as easily have not been
in the FF series. However, this book is actually very good and is probably one
of the most unique-feeling of the FFs because of all this.

From the
outset you feel different about your character in this book. You are used to
being told you are the best sword/gun/wizard/pilot/etc in most FFs – in TOD you are a simple human with no
background credentials who just ends up being cannon-fodder for the Gods (there’s
a nice Greek mythology touch here), which makes a refreshing change. You genuinely
don’t feel confident as you play through this and you get a real feeling of
vulnerability as various tricksters, rival groups, evil things, religious
zealots (of which there are loads of one kind or another in this book) and even
dinosaurs try to get in your way. For this reason alone, this book is a lot of
fun to play.

Added to that
is the fact that the plot is actually very absorbing and eventful, with masses
of encounters to keep your interest up and lots of places to explore in
subsequent play-throughs, even if, in the final section, the path becomes very
thin and linear. I have one gripe with the plot and this is a gripe which can
only have become apparent in recent years since Tolkien became ultra-popular
again: this book is a rip-off of Lord Of
The Rings. You are a fish-out-of-water sent on a suicide mission in an unknown
territory to ultimately destroy a piece of equipment that, in the wrong hands,
is bad news for everybody. Along the way you are hassled and threatened by
Envoys/Minions of Death (read: ringwraiths) who will do anything to steal the
talisman (read: ring) from you. The parallels are obvious, but the book is
still enjoyable in spite of this.

I
briefly mentioned the adult tone of this book. Some of the situations are
genuinely disturbing – the vivisect, for example, is horrific and the
prevalence of zealous monks/high priestesses/etc gives a worrying feeling of
reality. FF works best when, whilst you are drawn-in, you also can feel that it
is all a fantasy. Take Balthus Dire’s unholy creations in Citadel Of Chaos for example – they still manage to seem unreal,
but TOD’s encounters are often
uncomfortably real and unpleasant. The attacks by the envoys of death are
genuinely frightening and will now seem very similar to the
death-eater/dementor attacks in Harry
Potter. As TOD followed on the
heels of the controversial House Of Hell
with its modern-day setting, devil worship, virgin sacrificing, etc, TOD probably felt quite tame and toned-down
by comparison, but these two books were clearly FF coming of age. The
production team presumably also felt a bit disquietened by these two books as
the series then lurched into awkward Sci-Fi again (Space Assassin) followed by a Mad
Max copy in Freeway Fighter,
before settling comfortably back into its traditional medievalism roots with Temple Of Terror (although the envoy of
death idea was carried-over into TOT
with the much more inventive Messenger of Death.)

Much
has been made of Bob Harvey’s art in FF reviews, but I personally like it. He
brings a down-to-earth feel to the books he has drawn and his human characters
are very realistic. His creatures, however, aren’t quite so good in this book,
especially the dragon which looks more like a recoiled albino-eyed scaly cat –
dragons should be regal and impressive, not sinewy and sorry-looking.
Personally, I much prefer his work in Seas
Of Blood and Demons Of The Deep
but his art did add even more to the unique feel of TOD within the FF series.

The
cover too is unusual. The image of the envoy of death riding a sort of
horse/wraith and thrusting the talisman at the viewer with lightning etc around
it is very Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in feel and is, again, a bit more
real than unusual as it could play on the psyches of those who believe in this.
It definitely sets the tone though and makes you fear attacks from the
envoys/minions of death. Interestingly, this was one of the few covers (the
other most noticeable being Forest Of
Doom which was just made a bit more frightening) that wasn’t hugely changed
for the Wizard re-issues – with TOD though,
the original cover was more frightening and the Wizard version has a bit more
of a Sleepy Hollow comfortably-gothic
feel to it.

TOD is also unusual in that it manages to
be logical and there is little to criticise plot-wise. It does feature the usually
irritating reincarnation trick, but in TOD
it actually makes perfect sense. You work for Gods and Gods are omnipotent so
why can’t you be allowed to be brought back from the dead by them? Thankfully
you can only be reincarnated in the final section, so there is still a danger
of instant death which means the challenge is not negated too much. Plus, if
you are allowed to come back to life, you forfeit some essential items and have
to get them some other way, which makes it a bit more interesting. In this
respect, TOD does what books such as Forest Of Doom failed miserably to do –
it properly and logically handles the re-set button, plus it removes the normal
soul-destruction of dying a few steps before the end, especially after you’ve
survived everything else this book will already have thrown at you!

The
ability to come back from the dead/re-set the story is a mixed blessing in FF.
In Forest Of Doom it simply blew all credibility
out of the window and was frankly stupid, in Scorpion Swamp it was handled neatly (although you could pretend
you weren’t re-setting an area you had already been too), and in Night Of The Necromancer it’s the entire
purpose of the exercise as you are dead from the outset (although it can all
still go wrong, even then!) In the first two books this meant the game itself was
stupidly easy. In Night of the
Necromancer it meant the game was incredibly difficult. This suggests that
FF writers struggle to deal with this element. Talisman Of Death is, in spite of its many encounters,
potentially-disastrous situations with other people/things that want to steal
the talisman, and multiple mini-missions along the way that could go wrong,
actually not too hard to beat. I think it took me only two attempts and that
was only because I missed all the hog men bit the first time and didn’t get a
vital piece of equipment (although that did mean I got to fight a catalogue of
hard-as-nails dinosaurs.)

As
a child this was my least favourite medieval-type FF book, probably because I
simply didn’t understand what it was getting at and, at 8, I wasn’t the right
age for it. As an adult, and with the benefit of the Lord Of The Rings movies, Harry
Potter, and post-9/11 global paranoias about religious cults, this book is
actually very intelligent and whilst it definitely does not fit in with most of
the other FF books, it certainly makes for a more adult gaming experience and
is very satisfying to play, if a bit too easy in the end.